WOW - New Graphics Card or more RAM?

[nobbie]

I wonder if you'll have the option to play NA servers when EU WoW comes out... or vice versa. If so, see you there!
[right][snapback]67432[/snapback][/right]

The European German Community Manager "Gungdil" (a.k.a Garry "Gunslinger" Leusch) said that access to North America from Europe will be provided at a later time once the dust with respect to server stability etc has settled on both sides USA and Europe :)

[Roland]

On your place, I would not think twice and buy some 19"+ LCD or CRT. It will greatly improve your overall experience with the computer (even more when you're not gaming). Once you experience larger screen, there's no way going back :) .

Just look - you have 6800 card, which can comfortably handle games at 1600x1200, maybe with AA&AF too, but your 15" monitor can't display more than 1024x768 wihtout text beeing too small or your eyes too close* - can I say, imbalance?

So I would put my money there.

*screen should be at arm length from you
[right][snapback]67435[/snapback][/right]

This costs money. Money which I don't have. Besides, improving my monitor will not improve my gaming performance. Besides, my desk has limited space - a 15" is about all I can fit. 17" tops.

Oh, and 15" can't DISPLAY more than 1024x768, so size of text is a moot point. ;)

[Roland]

With the previously mentioned AV8 and 6800OC, add a Athlon64 3000+ (1800 Mhz), and 2x512MB PC3200. 

I don't have WoW, and I didn't have this gear when I was beta testing, so I can't comment there.  I really don't think the graphics card is holding you back at all though.  I run Farcry and Doom 3 single player pretty smoothly at 1600x1200 with very high settings for nearly all of the graphical options (AA is usually the thing that gets sacrificed if things do get choppy).  If we are only talking about graphics cards, I suspect that both of these games are more demanding than WoW, although WoW obviously puts a lot more characters on the screen at one time and kitty flights are just insane.

CPU (and mobo as needed to support it) would clearly be the place to start, if you scrap up the cash for a limited upgrade.  Would memory bandwidth be a bottleneck then?  It might be, but you would gain little or nothing by getting faster memory with your current mobo/CPU.  And a gig of memory is still a pretty expensive commodity.

If you're like me, you'll probably end up upgrading hardware and then getting hooked back on something like D2 or Deus Ex.
[right][snapback]67383[/snapback][/right]

I unlocked the extra pipelines in my card last night. Can't tell if it makes a difference, but I DID set AA to 8xS, Aniso to 16x, and Trilinear Filtering (basically all maxed), and was running around with virtually no graphical lag. So, I guess it made an improvement, even if the benchmarking software doesn't say it did (not that I measure performance by benchmarks; I just use them as a rough guideline). Now if I could just find my Arctic Silver, I could disassemble the card and apply some grease, hopefully making things cooler. Hell, maybe I'll even get a decent GPU / video card HSFU on the cheap to improve my OCing abilities. :) We'll see.

Oh, and I tested FarCry last night (with the above settings forced through the driver, and maxed settings (and I do mean MAXED) within FarCry itself). Ran smooth as ice and the graphics were astounding. So, yeah, I think unlocking those pipelines (12x1 Pixel to 16x1 Pixel, and 5x1 Vertex to 6x1 Vertex) gave me a boost. On the downside, I can't OC at ALL anymore, but maybe I can OC first, then re-unlock the pipelines. We'll see. Not like I could OC it much over where it was at stock anyway.

I should get my unemployment check this week, so with that I'll know whether or not I can afford the upgrade. :) I'll tell you how it goes if I can. :D

[Roland]

Screenshot of WoW:

Astranaar, Ashenvale, Kalmidor

That's with full settings in-game, plus full settings forced through the driver. I get an average of about 15 FPS in that shot. :)

Astranaar, Ashenvale, Kalmidor

That's with minimal settings in-game, and all settings off through the driver. World of difference (no pun intended). Don't know what the FPS is.

Oh, BTW - Far Cry and Doom 3 look AWESOME with full details. My God, that game (Doom 3) STILL scares the piss out of me. I just can't play it - it's too damn scary.

I definitely need a new processor. :P

[Roland]

Some random comments for you, Roland.  I have had your graphics card and an Abit motherboard since about the start of the year.

I'm curious what kind of in game performance levels you are getting with what you have now.  It seems like it should already be a pretty nice rig, but the CPU probably can't keep up.  If the card came with Farcry, what kind of settings and FPS are you getting?  Just curious.

Yep, as I suspected. According to these three links, I should be getting anywhere from 23.7 (High Quality at 1600x1200 with 4xFSAA) to 70.0 (High Quality at 1024x768 with no FSAA) average FPS in Doom 3. Now, granted, my RAM will be a bit slower, and after the upgrade so will my processor (without overclocking, which I probably WILL do), but even so I expect that to only make a difference of a few FPS. As such, the aforementioned evidence leads me to believe (whole-heartedly) that my card is currently SEVERELY CPU limited, and as such the graphical sluggishness I am experiencing are NOT a result of the card itself, but rather that the CPU cannot handle all the data the GPU is trying to get. It does make sense, seeing as how I can crank FSAA to 8xS and Anisotropic filtering to 16x, with full Trilinear filtering, and experience no severely noticeable increase in slowdown (in other words, the increased graphical lag is minimal compared to "normal" settings). Even Doom 3 is playable at High Quality with all settings in the driver maxed out (albeit at 1024x768, since that's the highest my monitor can display), although Far Cry is not quite as playable, particularly in MP (although near-perfect in SP).

My g/f and I have already gotten our state tax refunds (Telefile + Direct Deposit = ~4-day turnaround; I got mine in 5 days, she got hers in 3, two of which were a weekend for both of ours), and I calculated my unemployment insurance (a pittance, but enough to get us by for now, given her income), so it looks hopeful that I'll be getting my upgrade when I get my federal tax return. :D If only she hadn't lost one of her earrings (sapphire stud - a Christmas gift from when we first started dating over a year ago; I TOLD her not to wear her jewelry to work at the day care, despite how she doesn't remember it... *sigh*). But anyway...

I guess that settles it. The video card is too powerful for this old comp, so it's high-time for an upgrade. :) I'm going to wait to build a new system until Intel-compatible fully-SLI compliant motherboards start coming out (as it stands, only AMD-supported boards are out, and even then only with the nForce4 chipset; there's a few workaround Intel boards out, but nothing worth investing yet; besides, SLI is too new and unsupported to make it worth the money now). Dual 6800 Ultras is just SICK! :D Ah, what the future holds in store... How I drool. :)